


The Unlikely Survivors

by Kryptos



Category: Fallout (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 20:17:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19471399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kryptos/pseuds/Kryptos
Summary: A group of friends with mixed talents have known nothing but the comfort of Vault 117 for their entire lives. This vault is one of the most lenient, well-functioning vaults in the wasteland, and even has access to information from the surface. However, horrific events occur that leaves Collin and his friends to face the Capital Wasteland together for the first time.





	The Unlikely Survivors

**Chapter 1 – Thoughts of Freedom**

“Dude, come on. We have to get going.”

I’m drifting. I am somewhere beyond the echoes and away from the darkness.

“Seriously man, we’re dead if we don’t get moving.”

Light? Yes, light. Light that is more than real, reflecting only where it is natural and enveloping the entire body in warmth. A light that is not false and scattered, but rather true and singular. With this light, one easily finds himself basking in its glorious-

I feel a smack to my face, followed by Jon’s voice, “Stop mumbling, you dumb shit. We’re going to be late.”

“Jesus, man,” I rubbed my face and lifted my head from the soft, cold pillow, “Since when was it you smacking me around to get me out of bed?” I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and began pulling on my black work boots, “Just a year ago, I was practically dragging you by your feet to class every day.”

Jon laughed, “And boy, have the tables turned! I just don’t want to piss off Joseph again, he flipped his shit the last time you were late and he yelled at me for it. Apparently us being friends makes me responsible.”

I slid my 10mm into its holster with one hand as I started my coffee maker with the other, “Yeah, well, Joe can suck a dick. I didn’t want to be a guard in the first place, and he knows it. I swear he plays off of it, just to fuck with me.”

“Well, definitely don’t call him Joe. He thinks ‘Joseph’ sounds more sophisticated and authoritative.” Jon threw up some air-quotes and rolled his eyes as he said that. He walked over to my fridge and opened it, “Care if I jack a Nuka-Cola?” He practically had the bottle opened already as I nodded. We all had our addictions. His was Nuka-Cola, mine was coffee. He chugged half of the bottle, and asked as he wiped a drop off of the corner of his mouth, “So, where is Lucy?”

“She worked a night shift, the clinic has her doing that a lot lately. She actually usually shows up here around the time you and I start rounds.”

Jon smirked and said, “I guess that means you haven’t been getting any lately?”

I smiled back and retaliated, “At least I get any at all!” Jon flipped me off with a smile, and we began walking out of the door.

“Don’t forget your nametag, Joe will lecture you,” Jon reminded me.

I grabbed my shiny little nametag off of my end table. It read ‘Collin’ in black, engraved letters. You know, in case the few hundred people in Vault 117 suddenly ceased to recognize me. “I thought he insisted on ‘Joseph’?” I corrected Jon sarcastically.

We met with the other guards in the armory. After Joseph berated all of us for slacking on our duties or whatever, we received our assignments and dispersed. As intense as the guy seemed, he wasn’t actually so bad. He knew Jon and I were good friends, and always seemed to place us on the exact same assignments nearly every day. This time around, we were placed on the sixth level in a resident hallway. The levels counted up from the bottom in our vault, so this meant we were actually closer to the surface. The thought of this somehow always made me feel less isolated. This didn’t really make sense, given that our vault had ten levels. Nonetheless, it made me feel better.

As a guard, our jobs essentially consisted of walking up and down hallways pretending to be useful. We might break up a fight between a couple of pubescent boys here and there, or help a small child find her way back to her quarters because she had yet to learn the vault’s hallways, but God forbid if we ever had to fire our guns. Not that I wished something bad would happen to anyone such that we needed to shoot, but it was just so god damn boring. Sure, we were the only ones in the vault who were allowed to practice in the firing range on the bottom floor, but you can only shoot up so many pieces of cardboard.

The worst part about me being chosen as a guard actually didn’t have a whole lot to do with the G.O.A.T. exam. Our vault wasn’t really too strict on forcing people into whatever job the exam suggested. They just needed more people as guards, essentially. In fact, as far as we knew, our Vault was the most lenient vault out there. We were well aware that Vault Tech had made the vaults to trap people in these crazy social experiments, but our Overseer disregarded these orders long before I was born and simply wanted our vault to function well and keep people safe. We even had access to information from the outside world, as well as from other vaults, while those other vaults were completely in the dark. Sometimes both literally and figuratively. However, one rule that stayed in place for our vault was the whole ‘Nobody enters or leaves’ business. There were a couple of escape attempts when I was younger, and one of them was even successful. In general, though, people were both happy in our vault and too scared to venture outward. What I would give, though…

“So, did I tell you about Jaclyn’s latest intel from the surface?” Jon asked, bringing me out of my thoughts and back to the real world. If you could call it that.

“You did not, but save it for tonight. She can tell us about it while we’re playing cards.” Jaclyn was Jon’s sister, who had coincidentally been dating my older brother, Aaron, for years. They met after Jon and I became friends in our youth. They were basically the perfect couple, with my brother being a computer geek and Jaclyn being an information nerd. My brother and I were very close, and I was very happy that he’d be playing cards with us tonight.

Jon replied, “Oh shit, I forgot that was tonight! That makes my day, I really need a break from walking the halls aimlessly.” I smiled. We all loved ‘card night’, as we called it. It’s basically a night where we all go to the lounges on the second level, drink alcohol, and play a trading card game based off of the Grognak comics. One of my favorite things about it is that Jaclyn gives us updates on the outside world. Her job is to research data, both preexisting and incoming, about the Capital Wasteland above us, alongside other locations on the surface. This information, of course, is mainly for the Vault’s own research purposes, but Jaclyn shares it with us as a source of entertainment.

“Radroach, twelve o’ clock,” Jon muttered. He reached for his baton, but I put my arm out to stop him.

“Hold on, let me try something.” The radroach was very far down the hallway, and I really wanted to practice my shot on a moving target.

“What if someone comes into the hallway?” Jon started.

I smirked, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s clear.” I looked at my Pip-Boy and pulled up the map. Only, my map was a bit modified from everyone else’s. I selected all of the doors in our current hallway, and touched the ‘LOCK’ button that shouldn’t be there. On my screen, all of the door icons switched from a green outline to red, indicating that they were locked. Simultaneously, I heard a little click sound travel down the hallway as each door locked remotely.

I looked at Jon, he glanced around, and then he looked at me and nodded.

I considered switching on V.A.T.S., but decided against it. I wanted this to be all me. I was aiming for the nasty little head with my 10mm pistol, looking down the sights. I took my shot, and just barely missed by a few inches.

“Collin, I think someone is coming towards the hallway door. You might wanna hurry before they wonder why it’s locked.” Jon sounded nervous.

I replied calmly, “Okay, just one second.” I realigned my sights, exhaled slowly, and squeezed the trigger rather than pulling it. The radroach splattered messily across the metallic floor, and the loud pop of my gun echoed for a moment before resonating away into the iron walls. As soon as this was done, I ran towards the diseased radroach while unlocking all of the doors from my Pip-Boy. I heard the person on the other side of the hall door struggle with it for a brief moment before the wave of unlocking doors reached it. I pulled my baton out and rubbed it in some of the radroach’s guts so that it appeared I had killed it with that instead of my gun.

Joseph was the person who came through the door, muttering “Damn doors, acting funny again.” I straightened my back as he passed me. He gave me a side glance, and then continued past Jon. “Just seeing how you boys are doin’. Best that you clean up that radroach before people start walking through here and steppin’ in it. And try not to make such a mess when you hit them, no need to explode them like that. A good, firm thump will do, no mess necessary. Almost looks like you shot the damn thing.”

“Yes, sir,” Jon and I said slightly out of sync, and Joseph disappeared eventually through the hall door on the other end.

Once we figured he could no longer hear even the faintest echo of our voices, we started laughing and Jon gave me the classic ‘bro’ handshake, patting my back as he said, “Dude, that was fucking awesome! Good shot man. How the hell did you lock the doors like that?”

“Oh, just a mod my brother and I came up with a while ago. We just got the code for it finished and debugged a month ago, he installed it on my Pip-Boy at our last card night.” We used to have card night every week, but lately our little group only got together about once a month. That’s pretty much the only time I ever saw my brother nowadays, and Var for that matter. Var was my other best friend; we had been friends since we started school. I was excited to see both him and Aaron tonight. Ironic how our world of metal rooms and hallways was so relatively small, and yet we could go so long without seeing certain people. Perhaps Vault 117 was one of the bigger vaults with its 10 levels, and it also expanded to great lengths on each floor, but it was still strange to not even so much as run into my own brother or best friend in such a long time.

“You and Aaron still do that stuff? I figured you guys don’t see each other enough to make your little ‘mods’ anymore.” Jon looked at his Pip-Boy, as if wishing his were upgraded, too.

“We still coordinate when we can. I pretty much just code during the little free time I do have, and he works on the interface stuff all the time. I just wish we didn’t have to do it under the radar, they still don’t want us modifying our Pip-Boy’s. Which is bullshit.”

“Who is this ‘they’ that you speak of?” Jon asked.

“Eh, just the tech guys. They’re afraid we’ll break them, and there ‘aren’t enough Pip-Boy’s to go around’, or something stupid like that.” This topic always got me going. Especially because having a tech job is what I would have chosen if they didn’t force me to join the guard.

“You guys should just upgrade mine anyways, I won’t let anyone see. It’s worth the risk.”

I responded, “Worth the risk for you, maybe. They’d just make you restore your Pip-Boy to default settings and basically say ‘Don’t do it again.’ I, on the other hand, would probably have to give mine up, and my brother would be suspended from the tech department for God knows how long.”

“Yeah, good point. But still, you and Aaron have such badass Pip-Boys. If they ever approve mods, just let me in on it.” Jon always tried to convince me, and I always had to remind him of my caution.

“Will do, man.” I knew they’d never approve it, though. The few strict rules our vault did have weren’t going anywhere.

***

A good eight hours later, it was seven o’ clock and time to finish up rounds. After debrief in the armory, and a long, repetitive lecture by none other than our good Captain Joseph, we guards were free to go for the weekend. Well, those of us who didn’t have duty this weekend. Jon pulled his helmet off of his semi-long, curly blonde hair and removed his body armor from his bony torso. It always never seemed to quite fit him; he was skinny as a pole and yet he was a guard. But, Jon was a good guard no less. By no means was I myself a big meathead like many of the other guardsman, but I did at least have some meat on my bones. I was more average-heighted and compact. The frequent training helped tone my muscles a bit more over the past year, but poor Jon was just now starting to fill out to a size that might be considered moderately less bone-thin. I guess progress is progress.

Jon shoved the last of his gear into his locker and said, “Hey, I’ll catch you in an hour at card night.”

“Yeah man, I’ll see you there,” I called after him as he went off, probably to go sit in his own quarters and drink excessive amounts of Nuka-Cola. This reminded me that I could really go for a cup of coffee.

“Hey uh, you guys doin’ one of your game night things?” asked Mike from one locker over, one of the many meatheads I mentioned earlier. He was probably twice my size, and half as intelligent if I had to be honest. A nice guy, though.

I replied, “Oh, yeah, just the usual you know?”

Mike smiled, “I thought I heard ya say that to the scrawny one. I was just kinda hopin’ maybe his sista would be in the lounge tellin’ her stories or whateva. You know, of the outside and stuff. Me and some of the guys love listenin’ to it. And a lot of otha’ people, not just us. It’s fascinatin’, ya know?”

Without really trying, Jaclyn was actually quite popular for her knowledge and stories she obtained of the wasteland above us. People always listen in to her at the lounges. “Yeah, she will be there. I think she’s got some new stuff for us, second floor at eight o’ clock as always.”

I received a playful punch on the right arm as Mike said, smiling, “Sweet dude! I guess I’ll see ya there. Thanks!”

I couldn’t help but bear a genuine smile at his enthusiasm, “Sure thing, Mike.”

I trotted up the stairs to the third level, each step making the unforgettable sound of boots on metal, still bearing my smile. Maybe it’s weird, but I just really loved it when we all got back to together on these nights. My brother and I could talk about more Pip-Boy modifications we had in mind, Var and I could gang up on Jon and pick on him as per usual; just the whole vibe of being in the presence of all of your friends for the first time in a while always gave me this sort of good, nostalgic feeling. There was also the alcohol, too.

I was also very happy walking into my quarters and finding Lucy at the desk, probably working on some sort of medical research. She heard me walk in, instantly standing and turning to me with a bright smile. I couldn’t help but take her in as I always do. She had dark, brown eyes and hair dyed dark red that ran past her shoulders. She was not like most of the other girls in the vault; many of them tended to be stick thin, but Lucy was that perfect balance between being small and curvy. She was also just a little bit short, so that she came right up to the bottom of my nose when she stood right in front of me. I thought these things made her the most beautiful girl in the world, let alone in Vault 117.

“Hey there,” she said in an almost smoky voice, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me on the lips.

“Hey there, beautiful,” I responded, giving her a kiss back, “I like the glasses, they look really good on you.” She was wearing a pair of black, thick-framed glasses for the first time, and she really did look good with them. She was also still wearing her lab coat from the clinic, so she had this sort of whole look going on that was very attractive to me for some reason.

She simply smiled and asked, “Are you ready for card night?”

“Of course! We still have an hour to kill, though.” Thought I’d slip that in there, just to see.

Lucy maintained her smile, still holding her arms around me, and responded, “Hmm, I think we can kill an hour pretty easily.”

***

One easily killed hour later, Lucy and I were heading very quickly to everyone’s favorite lounge. We had lost track of time and were a little bit late. A lot of people passed us in the hallway, for this was a very popular floor on Friday nights. It was only a little past eight, and there was already a young, drunk maintenance worker stumbling about. The alleged ‘drinking age’ in our vault was eighteen, and this guy was probably just that and making the most of it. Other cliques of people stood together in the halls and inside of various diners, lounges and the bar. This was definitely the loudest place in the vault right now, but luckily our group of friends had a choice lounge further down the hall that was dim, relatively quiet, and not usually packed full of other young adult dwellers like us.

Lucy and I finally reached it and walked in together. We immediately saw Jon, Aaron, Jaclyn, Var, and Var’s robot assistant Thomas that I will explain later. Lucy went to save her and I a seat at the round table they were sitting at, and I went to grab us some drinks. A Mr. Handy worked behind the counter, and this one in particular had been named Hans.

“Hey Hans,” I addressed him, “could I get two Nukes, one for me and one for the lady?” We had a drink where you mix a couple of shots of whiskey with Nuka-Cola, and all of us called this beverage a Nuke.

“Sure thing, Mr. Collin. Glad to see you are doing well!” Hans hovered over to the glasses, grabbed two at once, and made the drinks.

He slid them over to me with his robotic arms, and I said, “Thanks Hans, you’re the best.”

“Anytime, my good sir. Please do visit more often, I do quite enjoy your company!” Hans replied in his posh British accent. I always loved the Mr. Handy robots, they had such character.

I carried the drinks to our table, setting one in front of Lucy and one in front of my empty seat. As I was sitting down, I gave Var a one armed hugged and said, “Hey man, how’ve you been?”

“Well, I was great for this entire month until I saw Jon’s face when I got in here,” replied Var with a smirk and a glance over to Jon, who was giving his signature smile-and-middle-finger gesture in Var’s direction.

“Try seeing him every single day at work, and in an oversized guard’s uniform no less,” I said, taking a sip from my Nuke.

Jon paused in the middle of playing a Grognak card in a match he was having with my brother, “Hey, fuck you guys! I’m starting to get big from training, and I’ll kick both of your asses when the time comes!”

Var retaliated, “But, Jon, you can’t kick my ass. I’m crippled!”

“Hardly,” Jon responded, “You have your fucking robot there that you’d probably use to fight me!”

Var simply nodded at this and said, “Damn straight.” A little side note: Var actually was crippled, or ‘physically disabled’ if you want to be politically correct. It had to do with his joints; he couldn’t bend his elbows or knees too well, and his hands didn’t quite work the way they were supposed to. He was born this way, and it had given him some challenges as he grew up in the vault. However, he was a smart guy and always worked and studied with robots, so he ended up in the Robotics Department for his job and custom built his very own robot to help him out with things he couldn’t do. Var could walk around quite well, but a lot of hands-on stuff required assistance. Nonetheless, our group of friends had known him for a very long time, and Var had no problem making fun of himself.

Var’s robot, Thomas, said alongside Var, “Damn straight, Jon sir.” He had the same accent that all other Mr. Handy robots had, but Thomas was much more enabled, you could say.

We all laughed, and everyone went back to their conversations and card games. I said to Aaron across the table, “Long time, no see!”

My brother was sharing a Nuka-Cola with Jaclyn; they weren’t much for drinking alcohol, and I always respected that. “Yeah, I know. We need to have these card nights more often like we used to. I was gonna ask, did you finish the code for the… thing?”

I leaned in, “Almost. I’m having a little trouble with a minor glitch. Well, I say minor because it sort of works, but not quite the way we wanted it too…”

Aaron replied, “That’s ok. Maybe we can talk about that later. For now, I do have a nice little update for your Pip-Boy.” I knew what this update was.

Jon jumped in, “Think maybe I could upgrade mine, Aaron?”

He and I both said, “No, Jon” at the same time. Jon hit his fist on the table and uttered some inaudible curse word.

My brother slid a holotape across the table. I swiped it up, glanced around the diner, and popped it into the holotape slot on my Pip-Boy. The word ‘Downloading’ appeared on the screen, and I rested my arm under the table to keep it out of sight. Nobody in the diner was really paying attention to us right now. Mike and his guard buddies were drinking at a table nearby, and Mike did glance over once in a while, likely to see if Jaclyn was telling us news of the wasteland yet.

I noticed Jon eyeing a girl that he always looked at, a taller girl named Nora. Var must have noticed as well, because he leaned to Jon and said, “Why don’t you just go talk to her?”

“I fucking try all the time, but I never get anywhere. Plus, that asshole Derek is talking to her right now.” Jon took a very large drink from his glass and glared over at the bar.

I looked over, and sure enough saw Derek saying something to Nora. Whatever he had said made Nora laugh. Jon looked quite pissed. I checked my Pip-Boy, and saw that the download had finished up. I said, “Hold on, Jon. I got this.” I popped the holotape back out, slid it back to my brother, and went to the new ‘Automatons’ tab on my screen.

“What the hell is that menu?” Jon asked curiously.

Instead of saying anything, I pointed at Hans at the bar as I clicked on a button on my screen. A second later, the signal transmitted and Hans suddenly flung a glass of Nuka-Cola onto Derek.

Derek was instantly pissed, and Nora had stepped back and was holding back a laugh, “What the hell? Fucking robot, what is wrong with you?”

Hans responded with artificial nervousness, “I-I’m so sorry, Derek sir! I don’t know what compelled me to-” Derek stormed off and Hans said, “Oh, um. Well, that was quite strange. Are you alright Ms. Nora?”

She nodded in return, looking a little taken aback at Derek’s rage. Jon fist bumped me, put his drink down, stood up and said to our table, “Fuck it. What have I got to lose?” He proceeded to walk over to the bar and talk to Nora. I overheard them talking about how much of a dick Derek was, and she actually seemed to be enjoying the conversation.

I smiled to myself and toyed with the new menu items on my Pip-Boy a little bit longer. Var and Aaron had started up a new game of Grognak cards, Thomas drawing a new card for Var each time he needed it. While they were playing, I asked Var how he was able to keep Thomas running for so long, and he told me something about daisy-chaining fission batteries that I didn’t quite understand. I looked around and just took in my surroundings. Sipping my drinking, I simply appreciated the moment. Jon was still hitting it off with Nora, Jaclyn was telling Lucy some interesting history she learned about old-world medicine, and the other people in the diner all looked like they were having a good time. This was why I always loved card night, everyone just seemed so happy.

I came out of my drifting thought stream as Jon sat back at the table and said, “I got a fucking date.” He was lit up with joy. I patted him on the back and we all talked about it for a few minutes, asking him how it went and what they talked about.

After some time had passed, we all knew it was time for Jaclyn to tell us the news. I said, “Alright, Jaclyn. Go ahead.”


End file.
